Where Grace Abides Read Online Free PDF

children—but especially with his only daughter. Gideon wasn’t surprised that she seemed a little flustered by the thought of showing up late.
    Even so, he made no effort to move out of her way. “How’s your family?”
    Without really looking at him—for whatever reason, Emma never quite looked at him but always just past him somewhere—she replied, “Everyone is gut. And yours? Your mamma and Rachel and Fannie?”
    â€œFar as I know, they’re just fine,” he said watching her.
    He hadn’t been up close to Emma for several months and was caught unawares by just how attractive she actually was. She didn’t have the dramatic good looks of his latest interest, Abby Frey, who was Englisch and prettied herself up by curling her hair some and using a little rouge. Emma, being Plain, wouldn’t resort to such worldly adornments.
    But then Emma didn’t need such worldly adornments.
    Even though she wouldn’t meet his gaze, he knew those eyes. They were a color of a blue that held a touch of smoke and sky, with long, ink-heavy lashes that looked to brush her cheeks when she blinked. He remembered that she blinked often. In fact, more than once Gideon had wondered if Emma needed to wear eyeglasses.
    He realized now that he always thought of Emma Knepp as a girl. A child. He was older than she by at least two years and had watched her grow up. For the first time, it struck him that she was no longer a girl but a young woman. A young woman lovely enough to steal a fellow’s breath away and, unless she’d changed a lot, with a sweetness of spirit to equal her comeliness, though she’d always been reserved to the point of an awkward shyness.
    â€œI should go,” she said abruptly, looking past him as if in search of an escape route.
    Gideon hesitated, reluctant to let her pass. Finally, though, he stepped aside, saying, “Give my best to your family.”
    She glanced at him, then quickly looked away. “Yes—all right,” she stammered.
    â€œAnd stop by the shop next time you’re in town and say hello,” he added, knowing full well she would do no such thing.
    He would no longer be in the Knepp family’s good graces—if he ever had been. Though he hadn’t been shunned, having never joined church in the first place, he was living outside the community and working for an Englischer. Levi Knepp would not want him associating with his only daughter.
    More to the point, Levi’s daughter didn’t seem overly eager to associate with him.
    He watched her hurry up the boardwalk. From time to time, some of his Amish friends had teased him about Emma being “sweet” on him. Now he found himself wondering if she had been. Truth be known, he’d never thought of Emma that way. She had always been just Levi Knepp’s shy daughter who lived up the road.
    For a moment he entertained the idea of Emma liking him and found it oddly pleasing. Just as quickly he shook it off. There was no way he’d be courting Emma Knepp as long as he lived outside the Plain community.
    Besides, he already had a girl, and a pretty one in her own right. Abby had the reputation of being a little wild, but that was all right.
    He wasn’t of a mind to settle down, not for a long time. An Englisch girlfriend who wasn’t all tied up in a bunch of rules and restrictions suited him just fine for now, though when it came time to marry, she wasn’t the sort he’d turn to.
    He watched Emma until she was out of sight, then turned and started off again for the shop.

    He saw the wagon at the same time he reached Edgar Folsom’s leather shop.
    The day was dry and hot, and the big draft horse kicked up a thick cloud of dust and stones in spite of its slow pace. The heat and the dirt burned Gideon’s throat, and he put his hand up to cover his mouth.
    It took him a moment to recognize the driver of the rattling farm wagon. He